Introductory Programming—Common Topics

Abstract

This chapter discusses topics normally taught within the typical introductory programming course (also known as a CS1 course among computer science educators) for undergraduate college students, including topics suggested by the ACM Computer Science Curricula 2013 report. It also provides learning “targets,” or single-point assessible skills and knowledge, for all the skills related to the normal topics taught in an introductory programming course, such as Introduction to Computer Basics and Programming, Accessing the IDE and Basic Python Syntax, Variables, Numbers, and Expressions, Instantiating Objects and Introduction to Graphics in Python, Working with Strings and other Sequence Structures, Using Pre-Defined Functions and Creating User-Defined Functions, Creating and Testing Branching Structures, Creating and Managing Looping Structures, Working with Lists and Arrays, Program Algorithms and the Design Process, and Brief Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming in Python, as well as some general suggestions about approaches to teaching these topics.